W&F Issue 4 2018

Wealth & Finance International - Issue 4 2018 29 Leading payment expert calls for withdrawal of Wolfsberg Group guidance “The Wolfsberg guidance on RMA has had a major and detrimental impact on the market supply of international banking services”, says Lyddon. “Authorities see the shrinkage of supply, are very concerned about it and attribute it to general de-risking. Authorities have been far less adept at identifying its underlying causes. Wolfsberg’s RMA guidance is one of them, and it should be withdrawn. Wolfsberg’s remit – self-awarded as it is a private organisation - is to combat Money Laundering and to counter the Financing of Terrorism. They have made no case that banks’ methods of managing RMA meaningfully increase or reduce AML/CFT risks. Indeed they state themselves that the risks are primarily operational. The response to their guidance, however, has been detrimental and, in our view, wholly disproportionate to the cases of AML/CFT risk that may have been mitigated by it”.